Bulent Ecevit

Bulent Ecevit (28 May 1925-5 November 2006) was Prime Minister of Turkey from 26 January to 17 November 1974 (succeeding Naim Talu and preceding Sadi Irmak), from 21 June to 21 July 1977 (interrupting Suleyman Demirel's two terms), from 5 January 1978 to 12 November 1979 (interrupting Demirel's two terms), and from 11 January 1999 to 18 November 2002 (succeeding Mesut Yilmaz and preceding Abdullah Gul. He was a member of the Republican People's Party and the Democratic Left Party of Turkey.

Biography
Bulent Ecevit was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1925, and he studied in his hometown. In 1953, the writer joined the left-of-center Republican People's Party, and he served as Minister of Labor from 1961 to 1965 under party leader Ismet Inonu. He became the party's General-Secretary in 1966, and in 1971-72 toppled Inonu, whom he accused of compliance with the military regime, to become party chairman himself. N evertheless, he endorsed and took responsibility for teh military occupation of north-east Cyprus in 1974. After the 1980 army coup, he was banned from active poltiics for ten years, though the ban was lifted in 1987. He became chairman of the Democratic Left Party of Turkey, founded by his wife Rahsan Ecevit two years earlier, which eventually managed to get into Parliament in 1991. In 1999, Ecevit became Prime Minister after having served as Deputy Prime Minister in a coalition government with Mesut Yilmaz and his Motherland Party of Turkey. He won re-election due to a surge in popularity following the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, but internal divisions in his party led to defeat in 2002. Ecevit died in 2006.